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Written by Adam Snider
This is the headstone of William Bradford. I’ve taken tens of thousands of photos, and this is one of my favorite ones that doesn’t contain a living person.
There’s a lot of misinformation out there about him and about the first Thanksgiving, and this post isn’t meant to address those lies, but one of the most important things you can know is that the Pilgrims and the Indians signed a peace treaty that lasted unbroken for more than 50 years (broken by the Indians) – the longest period of unbroken treaty between Anglos and Native Americans to date. There’s been travesty and mistreatment, sure enough, but it didn’t start until these men were long gone. The men and women who stepped off that boat were as close to saints as probably have ever lived on the world, and the Wampanoag Indians who befriended them were the same. Revisionist historians would have you believe that either the white man got off the Mayflower and started shooting up the place with his thunder sticks, and/or that the Indians started scalping women and children left and right. Those are fat lies, and in fact, very closely opposite to the truth. If these stooges can get you to believe that the Christians who came here on the Mayflower were morally bankrupt, then they can start feeding you lies about this country right on down to 1776, through the Civil War, and probably right up to present-day. Don’t buy that mess.
Now back to William Bradford…..
William Bradford came here on the Mayflower in November of 1620. He was Governor of Plymouth Colony every year until his death (over 30 years), save the 5 he declined to serve. He and his fellow Puritans and Pilgrims were assisted by Chief Massasoit and the Wampanoag tribe, and together celebrated the first Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621, which was undoubtedly a religious ceremony that included grateful prayer to the Creator, as every ceremony in the recorded history of both of these groups did.
Two years later, in 1623, we have the first recorded Thanksgiving Day designation, by Governor Bradford, “set[ting] apart a solemn day of humiliation, to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer…..and also set apart a day of thanksgiving.”
To shed a bit more light on the kind of man William Bradford was, it’s important to know that he was chosen, or “elected” by his peers as their governor thirty times. In fact, they never elected anyone else. That’s remarkable, but what you may not know is that our modern word “election” is derived from the Puritan method of choosing leaders. They would have a list of names written out (the “ballot”), and the mandate of the people was to choose the man who most readily exhibited with his life the qualities and attributes of one of God’s elect. Thus…..an “election”.
William was always elected. By a group of Puritans. Who got on a boat and sailed across the ocean to a wilderness with their wives and small children for the express purpose of finding the freedom to serve the Lord wholeheartedly in their family life.
William HAD to be a saint haha.
William Bradford is as closely connected to the Thanksgiving holiday as any human has ever been. Surely he lived a life that embodied it.
Here’s what his headstone reads. The top in Hebrew, the middle in English, the bottom in Latin. As I stood before his headstone just yards from the site of the first building the Pilgrims built – a church – the English words told me things I already knew, but the Hebrew and Latin hit my spirit like a ton of bricks, because of the life of the man who is buried beneath it. It was as if he was passing me a baton with every word.
The Hebrew – “Jehovah is our Help”
The English – “Under this stone rest the ashes of William Bradford, a zealous Puritan and sincere Christian”
The Latin – “What our forefathers with so much difficulty secured, do not basely relinquish”
This Thanksgiving, may we all hold on a little tighter to the things that matter, and far more loosely to the things that don’t.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Here’s a new Christmas song that I recently wrote: It’s Christmas Time Just Once a Year. Remember to keep Christ in Christmas, for He is the reason for the season. Enjoy . . . and pass on to those you know.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…..”

The longer I live, the more respect I have for those who declared America a nation and lived to support that declaration. They weren’t perfect men and women, but they were good men and women, and they were so wise.

Nearly 250 years ago, they wrote in our founding document that the people who would feel at home in America would be those to whom it was readily apparent that all men were created, and that man’s Creator was a Kind One. After all, what but a Kind Creator would have endowed man with inalienable Rights, especially Rights such as Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness?

But what’s more than all of that, our founding fathers – the ones who have found their names and lives the object of undue ridicule in my generation – saw it as a hill to die on.

Only not for the reason many today would guess.

True equality is a concept that is distinctly and exclusively derived from a Benevolent Creator. Equality can be demanded from no other platform.

We’re all equal? You can’t get that from science. That’s absurd. Nowhere in study of natural or metaphysical realms does the concept of endowed equality exist.

We’re all equal? You can’t get that from reason. There’s no evidence. I’m far more useful than some people, but far less useful than others. I contribute far more than some, but far less than others. And the same is true for each of you.

We’re all equal? You can’t get that from evolution. Survival of the fittest. Mr. Mouse thinks he’s equal to Mr. Cat? Good luck making that case with the food chain. That only works in Tom and Jerry.

We’re all equal? Try explaining that to the women and children throughout history who have been trampled and used by brutal men only because they were physically stronger. And, men are generally physically stronger than women and children. It’s a fact. There’s nothing equal about that.

No, equality only exists in a world where we are all equal because we all bear the image of our Creator. That’s the only way equality can exist.

It isn’t in science, or evolution, or philosophy, or history, or some well-thought-out concept of social governance.

Only creation, by a Kind Creator who chose to make us image-bearers.

Equality was such an important concept to the men and women who founded our nation precisely because they believed that we were created by the God of the Bible, and that He was kind.

I hope and pray we can move towards true equality in this country. There are so many in our past who gave so much in hopes that we would.

We had a certain amount of money to buy a new vehicle. I found exactly what I wanted a couple weeks ago. It was too good to be true, and certainly wouldn’t last long at the price it was listed. It was a 2010 Impala with 37,000 miles on it. We did not have the money at that time, and it was certain to be gone by the time we did. I just prayed, “Lord, if that’s my vehicle then I know it won’t sell.”

Eighteen days later, even in the midst of everyone buying new/used vehicles because of baseball-sized hail destroying many vehicles, it was still available. Because 18 days had passed, they accepted 1200.00 less than their listing price, which was exactly what we had. So I’m now driving a beautiful, very nicely kept 2010 Impala.

“There’s a naked man!” I loudly proclaimed. Patty, my sister, had seen the expression on my face before my declaration and already turned to investigate its cause. After my comment, she looked again but saw no one. She turned back around and laughed, thinking I had pulled one over on her.

“No!” I demanded. “I’m serious. I’m not joking. There’s a naked man out there!” Once again, Patty and the ladies with us turned to look. They laughed, but why shouldn’t they? The man had gone behind the restaurant’s brick wall so there was no way they could see him.

“Look!” I demanded. “I’m not joking!” The man was now in full view. “There he is!”

This time Patty saw him, but so did several of the other patrons of the restaurant. Patty, who is always carrying a gun, and several of the men around us jumped up and ran outside. It didn’t take long for them to realize that the young man wasn’t living in our reality. Something was wrong.

As I watched, a SUV stopped on the highway in front of the restaurant. A man jumped out and ran toward them begging, “Please don’t shoot him! Please don’t kill him! He’s my son. Please don’t kill him! He’s just returned from Afghanistan. He’s got severe PTSD. He doesn’t know what he’s doing!” Tears were rolling down the elderly man’s cheeks as he pleaded for his son’s safety. Patty assured the father that they were only detaining him, and trying to prevent him from running back onto the highway where he could be injured.

When the police arrived, the father once again pleaded for his son’s life. The police assured him that they understood the situation and were not going to hurt the young soldier. They only wanted to make sure he received the help he needed.

Even now, tears roll down my cheeks as I recall that day. When I consider how the father felt as he pleaded for his son’s life, how the young soldier must have suffered on the battle field to be in that condition, and the response of the authorities when they realized what was truly happening, how can I not cry? What a brave and courageous young man. I am so thankful for him and the many others who have willingly risked their lives for my freedom, for my family’s freedom, and for my country. I will ALWAYS stand and salute the flag that represents my country, the country for which our soldiers have suffered and died.

Avid evolutionists recently celebrated the 200th birthday of their hero, Charles Darwin, in a manner that promoted his theory as true science. Major museums assisted in this propaganda by displaying Darwinian exhibits that presented evolution as proven fact and praised Darwin for opening the minds of many. Regretfully, they were right in one of these two areas; Darwin did open the minds of many, but what they failed to mention is the trail of tears this legacy left.

Darwin was born into a religious family in the year 1809, yet he was never a true believer. His family attended the Unitarian Church of England, a church whose beliefs had long rejected the authority of God’s Word and essential Christian doctrines such as the deity of Christ, the Trinity, and the fall of man.

Avid evolutionists recently celebrated the 200th birthday of their hero, Charles Darwin, in a manner that promoted his theory as true science. Major museums assisted in this propaganda by displaying Darwinian exhibits that presented evolution as proven fact and praised Darwin for opening the minds of many. Regretfully, they were right in one of these two areas; Darwin did open the minds of many, but what they failed to mention is the trail of tears this legacy left.

Darwin was born into a religious family in the year 1809, yet he was never a true believer. His family attended the Unitarian Church of England, a church whose beliefs had long rejected the authority of God’s Word and essential Christian doctrines such as the deity of Christ, the Trinity, and the fall of man.

This was the false religion Darwin grew up in, and with a lack of genuine faith in his Creator he had no foundation upon which to stand when his young daughter succumbed to the terrible disease of tuberculosis (supposed diagnosis). Having no true relationship with God, and in bitterness of heart, he replaced his Creator and false religion with a new religion, natural selection, thus devising a theory that would become a magnet for those who wished to abandon belief in God. Although Darwin’s abandonment of the Creator doesn’t appear to have been with the desire of “now I can do what I want without consequence,” many have latched on to his theory for that precise reason. After all, natural selection did away with the need for God, and without a God to answer to for your actions, you can do anything you desire; without a God to set the criteria of right and wrong, you can create your own.

That’s what is so dangerous about the theory of “man being a byproduct of random chance.” It does away with God. Thus, it gives a justified foundation for men to create their own standards, and if their newly-devised standards include the murder of 13 or the murder of millions, who are we—a mere product of random chance—to declare them wrong? Thus the dilemma: without an Ultimate Authority (God) who sets the criteria, what makes one man’s ideas superior or more acceptable than another’s?

Yes, beliefs do matter. If a person believes he is nothing more than the byproduct of chance events brought about by random mutations in a pool of primordial slime, he will pattern his life accordingly. His decisions and actions will stem from that belief. A perfect example of this is the Columbine killers. Not many people know that on April 20th, chosen in honor of Hitler’s birthday, one of the two men responsible for this murderous rampage chose to wear a T-shirt that read “Natural Selection”. Authorities later discovered these two young men had created their own website greatly dedicated to evolution. They believed that killing people was nothing more than “scattering molecules” and practicing “survival of the fittest”. Their minds were open to Darwin’s teachings.